Stitches

Well. I now have a functional living room and dining room again. Yay! I sure am tired of washing and painting and vacuuming and polishing and washing some more. Currently I've left off most of the bric-à-brac, knicknacks and dustables. (And they still need to be sorted and purged.) I'm kind of enjoying the serenity and a feeling of more space. Except for the winter lights on the wrought iron railing. Tis the season and all, right? Besides it's rather dark these rainy days. Extra light is welcome. Possible photos soon.

Happily I was able to get back up in the studio for awhile today. I sure missed my textiles! Right now I'm trying to make a few scarves so I can do some eco-dyeing on them at our next Spectrum Study Group meeting. I have lots of nice leaves I saved in the freezer and some rusty pieces of iron. But first I have to hem the scarves with a rolled hem. The silk/wool twill (from Dharma) is very lightweight and would shred completely if I didn't finish the edges first. I also have some yummy silk crepe which is a little heavier but still needs hemming. This time I used a different method that I got from a video on the Threads website. (Sorry, still haven't got the links right yet.) It works really well and is relatively easy to do. The hem is a little thicker, being 4 layers rather than 3, but it turns out very neat and narrow.

I think the photo is self-explanatory. You use the iron to press about 1/4" hem and then use that to align your stitches. I'm using vintage silk thread (so it will dye along with the fabric) and it pulls up very easily every few inches. It's still pretty time-consuming but much less frustrating to do. Now it remains to be seen how many scarves, both rectangular and square, I can finish before next Thursday. Oh well - good excuse to listen to podcasts!

The last three weeks of my life have disappeared in a blur. How did it get to be December already?